Quote from: Bob G on August 07, 2025, 11:16:57 AMI just discovered that WD40 is perfect for removing the sticky residue from those labels that manufacturers love to put on clear plastic rolling stock jewel cases.

You know the sort. The ones that say "Returned Stock. Sold as seen", or "This chassis has a 3.4V motor and should not be used on a 12V supply".

You know it is. That's why you bought it. But now, after peeling it off and scrubbing for 48 hours to no effect, you can now soak it with WD40 and all will be well.

Hazzah!

If you don't like the smell of WD40 and/or you are using it near food, eucalyptus oil is a great substitute. 

I have not had any luck contacting Luke and Kylie over the last year or so. Companies House shows Electra as a going concern, so the ball is totally in their court.

Apologies for resurrecting an old post but Electra has been quiet since July 2024. The website front page hasn't been updated but the images have been removed and it's still live so someone must be paying for it.

Does anyone know anything or have we permanently lost a valuable resource?

BTW, if anyone has any unmade Southern Region EMU or DEMU vinyls and is looking to dispose of them, please PM me.

Whilst viewing knitted motorcycles is mildly diverting, this was not our chief purpose in visiting the tourist office. What we wanted was City Passes. These last for three days and give you free use of local busses and trams and free or reduced access to various museums. At €19 each they are well worth the expense. There was a problem with the computer, so the young lady suggested we come back in an hour, perhaps have a coffee. We took up the first part of the suggestion, but instead of coffee we sought beer.

At this point it might be as well to give a very brief history of Mulhouse as it seems to be little known in the UK, except among those in the know about its museums. It had been part of the Holy Roman Empire*, becoming one of the ten Free Imperial Cities of Alsace within said Empire. In 1515 it joined the Swiss Confederation as an associate. It was not annexed by France under the Treaty of Westphalia but became a free Calvinist republic until 1798, when it joined France following a vote in favour by its citizens.

In the 19th century it became a major industrial city, including textiles. The is a museum of printing on fabric but I confess we didn't visit that. The city became known as the "Manchester of France".

As @joe cassidy pointed out, Alsace and Lorraine were ceded to the German Empire following the Franco-Prussian War but regained in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. It was occupied by the Germans again in 1940-45.

 Another thing worth knowing is that there is an Alsatian language. By this I mean the language of the people of Alsace rather than the barking of a German Shepherd Dog.
 
Anyway, back to the beer. We found a pub called J. Murphy as in the famous brewers of Irish Stout who aren't Guinness. They had both, but we chose neither.



In the background is the Tour du Bollwerk. This may be our first example of the Alsatian tongue. Behind me is Rue du Bastion.
Here's a better view of the Bollwerk.



And from outside;



Note the tram in the distance.
According to Google Maps the Bollwerk dates from the 14th century. It looks a bit insubstantial to me and far too tidy. I'm inclined to think it's a replica, but at the very least it must have had a lot of restoration. It does seem to be about where the city walls would have been, so it isn't a total fantasy.
The beer was very nice and when we went back to the tourist office our passes were ready.
Next time we will have a look at this chap,



And ponder the name of a shopping centre. We might even fit in a tram ride.

*  "Neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an empire" Voltaire

Personally, I am holding off importing anything until the "dust settles" so to speak. I have plenty of kits to build while I wait for things to adjust or change.
Cheers!
Maurice

Quote from: jpendle on Yesterday at 09:50:47 PM... so he's not thinking straight.

I confess to be confused AF with this tariff stuff, it changes every day and it's a crap-shoot anyway when you've got stuff on pre-order or working through the wonderful TMC post-sales weathering and fitting services. Just happy to have my CL44 and not handing over even more money to the Feds. 

Quote from: njee20 on Yesterday at 02:43:17 PMIsn't that expected though? That's what's changing next week.

Steve is self medicating after a hip replacement, so he's not thinking straight.

John P

Quote from: thebrighton on Yesterday at 03:45:01 PMI believe Fleetline offer a whitemetal one you just add wheels and coupling to.

The only trouble with the fleetline one that I found was you needed to find a way to secure the wheels in place so that they don't fall out.

Quote from: thebrighton on Yesterday at 03:45:01 PMI believe Fleetline offer a whitemetal one you just add wheels and coupling to.

The Fleetline range of kits has been acquired by John Day Models (along with ABS/Beaver and others):

https://www.johndaymodels.co.uk/

The Fleetline Lomac is shown here:

https://www.johndaymodels.co.uk/wagon-and-crane-kits/#jp-carousel-1934

Ian

Yes Skytrex did do a cast RTR lowmac back in the 1980s - I still have a couple.

I found the NGS lowmac very difficult to get to run - it's very light and needs a a lot of weight adding.